Supreme Golden Palace

Chapter 136 The Imperial Edict (Part 1)

When Dou Rongding suddenly passed away, Yang Jian suspended court for seven days to express his grief.

It was also because of Yang Jian's abolition of the court that the ceremony to reward meritorious generals and soldiers had to be postponed.

After receiving the official notice, Lü Shang put the document on his desk, changed into the Taoist robe he used to wear at home, found a copy of the Tao Te Ching in the library, moved to the stone bench in the courtyard, and slowly recited the Taoist canon.

"The Tao that can be spoken of,"

Sunlight filtered through the branches of the pine and cypress trees in the corner of the courtyard, casting dappled shadows on Lü Shang.

He himself was immersed in the rhythm of the scriptures, and his face showed a detached indifference to worldly affairs.

The murderous aura that had been cultivated on his body over the years was gradually worn away.

This was the first time Lü Shang had calmed down and recited scriptures since he had deciphered the "Mountain Classic" from the "Secret Manual of Jinhua" and left the Secretariat.

He ran his fingertips along the slightly curled pages of the Tao Te Ching, a gentle breeze carrying the scent of pine needles, quietly seeping into the lines of the text.

For a moment, he forgot the time, and before he knew it, a whole day had passed, until the sun began to set and a sliver of its afterglow fell upon Lü Shang.

"Ugh!"

As dusk approached, Lü Shang gently closed the "Tao Te Ching," glanced at the sky, and sighed deeply.

"A rare moment of peace and quiet,"

As Lü Shang stood up, a pine needle happened to fall onto the Tao Te Ching.

He gently tucked the pine needles into the book, then turned and stepped into the house.

The documents on the desk gleamed faintly in the candlelight, complementing the Tao Te Ching in my hands.

Lü Shang pondered for a moment, then reached out and unfolded the Xuan paper, picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and held it on the paper.

Lao Tzu said: "The Great Dao is formless, yet it gives birth to heaven and earth; the Great Dao is without emotion, yet it governs the sun and moon; the Great Dao is nameless, yet it nourishes all things; I do not know its name, so I call it Dao."

His pen moved like a dragon and a snake, bringing the opening words of the "Qingjing Jing" to life on the paper.

After his journey to the northern frontier, Lü Shang not only made progress in his cultivation, but his Dao heart was also tempered by the flames of war, resulting in significant improvements.

In the past, Lü Shang possessed unparalleled superhuman strength, but this was merely brute force. Even if he could rely on it to gallop across the battlefield and be invincible, he could not be said to have attained enlightenment.

Now that Lü Shang has attained physical sainthood and transcended the ordinary, possessing supernatural powers that are almost like those of an immortal among men, when he reads the Tao Te Ching, Yin Fu Jing, Nan Hua Jing, Huang Ting Jing, Wen Shi Jing, and Qing Jing Jing, he feels a different kind of emotion in his heart.

His mind became increasingly clear, and all the confusion he had encountered during his past spiritual practice was easily resolved. A completely new understanding of heaven, earth, nature, and all things in the universe quietly grew in his heart.

"road!"

Lü Shang sighed softly.

Only then did he realize that the cultivation after becoming a martial arts immortal was different from the cultivation before becoming an immortal.

Before becoming an immortal, one can achieve something by cultivating flesh, tendons, membranes, bones, internal organs, marrow, and blood, provided there is a cultivation method and a certain amount of talent.

After achieving physical immortality, one has the methods of cultivation and all the resources needed for cultivation. However, without a matching Dao heart, let alone seeking the path to shatter the void, simply avoiding falling from the realm of human immortals is already an extremely fortunate achievement.

It should be understood that in the path of cultivation, whether it is Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, or other unorthodox or heterodox paths outside of these three religions, the Tao is the foundation, the method is the manifestation of the Tao, and the technique is the application of the method.

At this moment, Lü Shang finally glimpsed the surface of the Dao. "Perhaps, based on this, I can truly comprehend a method for proving the Dao."

"By combining the 'Mountain Classic' which contemplates the gods and measures the orifices, the 'Yin Yang Guiding' which uses the true fire of the sun and the true water of the moon to cleanse the physical body, and the 'Blocking the Hundred Rivers' which is the highest skill of Gonggong, we can eliminate the dross and retain the essence."

The so-called "blocking all rivers" refers to the supreme martial art that Lü Shang obtained after his bloodline gradually recovered after he became a pure-blooded Gonggong. This was a gift from his ancient ancestors.

The original Gonggong clan was ordered by the Heavenly Emperor to control the waters. While controlling the waters of the four seas and eight wastelands, he also mastered two superior martial arts techniques: one called "Blocking and Preventing Hundreds of Rivers," which governs life, and the other called "Destroying High and Filling Low," which governs destruction.

With these two great powers, Gonggong roamed the eight wastelands and became the supreme water god.

It is also due to the legacy of the first Gonggong that each generation of pure-blooded Gonggong will randomly obtain a skill in the bloodline inheritance. The skill that Lü Shang obtained is the "Yongfang Baichuan" which is the one he was born with.

This is a lineage of ancient gods, and it was because Lü Shang obtained this skill that he was able to achieve this enlightenment.

"Nameless, the origin of heaven and earth; named, the mother of all things."

The ink from the inkstone spread in the brush washer, and Lü Shang stared at the still-wet ink on the paper, reciting the first chapter of the Tao Te Ching in a low voice.

In Taoist thought, water has always occupied an important position. Taoists believe that the Tao is the root and essence of all things in the universe, and the characteristics of water are similar to the Tao.

Therefore, Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching: "The highest good is like water. Water benefits all things without striving, and dwells in places that others disdain. Therefore, it is close to the Tao."

It is also said: Nothing in the world is more yielding and weak than water, yet nothing can surpass it in attacking the hard and strong.

Lü Shang was devoted to the Tao and was very familiar with Taoist classics such as the Tao Te Ching. However, he had never felt such a sudden enlightenment as he did now.

This feeling was somewhat similar to the enlightenment he had when he entered the world of martial arts from Taoism with the help of a book called "The Secret Manual of the Ancestor of Fuli".

The candle wick crackled and sparked, and Lü Shang caught a glimpse of the ink in the inkstone, its surface rippling slightly.

The night wind blew through the corridor outside the window, and the copper bells on the eaves trembled slightly. He stared at the dark shadows and suddenly felt that the ripples had turned into a vast ocean, unfolding in his eyes the scene of Gonggong controlling the floods in the Great Wilderness.

A giant azure python coiled around the mountain. Wherever its head touched, the floodwaters flowed into the ravines as if they were alive. Every trace of water corresponded to the directions of the Eight Trigrams.

In the vast wilderness of mountains and seas, there is Mount Buzhou.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Great Wilderness West Classic, states: Beyond the Northwest Sea, at the corner of the Great Wilderness, there is a mountain that does not join together, named Buzhou Fuzi, guarded by two yellow beasts. There is a river called the River of Cold and Heat. To the west of the river is the Damp Mountain, and to the east is the Curtain Mountain.

The mountain is not joined in the middle, meaning that the mountain body is broken, hence the name Buzhou (meaning "uneven").

"Buzhou" means incomplete.

He had a sudden inspiration, changed to another sheet of paper, and began to write with flowing, powerful strokes.

"Water avoids high places and flows downwards, never going against the current. It is good at adapting to different terrains. It is empty, quiet, deep, and well-drained, preserving the spirit and nourishing the soul. It is good at forming deep pools."

As night deepened outside the window, Lü Shang continued writing furiously, each stroke of his pen gleaming faintly.

He had already realized that this method of attaining enlightenment was not about deliberately integrating various methods, but about allowing the contemplation of the "Mountain Classic," the refinement of the "Yin-Yang Guide," and the water virtue of the "Blocking the Hundred Rivers" to all return to the essence of the "Dao," flowing naturally like water and transforming according to its nature.

When the morning light pierced through the window paper, Lü Shang discovered that the ink on his desk had dried.

He carefully tucked the scroll into his sleeve, his gaze falling on the document on the desk announcing the postponement of the award, and suddenly chuckled.

Rather than the titles and rewards bestowed by the imperial court, he actually preferred to take advantage of these few days of leisure to go to the riverbank on the outskirts of the city to watch the water, to see how streams converge into rivers, how rivers absorb filth and impurities, and how the ocean rises and falls.

(End of this chapter)